I would be lying if I said I hadn't been looking forward to this movie for quite some time. But that is mostly down to the constant delays it experienced on it's way to being released (bearing in mind that it was filmed prior to The Avengers!) rather than because I'm a fan of the fairy tale.
The film opens on the famous tale of two children in the woods who come across a candy house and can't resist having a snack. Inside the house they discover a witch who tries to fatten up poor Hansel in order to eat him. The kids escape and burn the witch. The End. Or so those Grimm brothers would have you believe. Queue a nice animated sequence to help fill us in on what has become of the brother and sister since their encounter. Well, they become Witch Hunters of course! What else are they going to do with no form of therapy to work out their demons? They get hired by the Mayor of a small town with a witch problem and the ass-kicking ensues. But the witches are more than just an unwanted nuisance for the town and have snatched several children. What are they up to? And will Hansel and Gretel be able to figure it out in time to put an end to their schemes?
This movie has received a lot of stick but I found it to be a lot of fun. If you went in there expecting a serious movie, tacking all kinds of issues then I'd forgive you for being disappointed. What I was expecting was a somewhat cheesy premise, some laughs, lots of bad-assery and the occassional F-bomb and that's exactly what I got.
Jeremy Renner's Hansel was actually a lot sweeter and accident prone than I was expecting. Having seen the trailer and knowing his penchant for action movies I expected him to be the brawn, and Gemma Arterton to be the brains. But I was pleasantly surprised to see her step out of her damsel in distress role and actually kick some butt. She was great as Gretel and never for one minute seemed like she couldn't handle herself. They had good chemistry and it was nice to see a brother/sister dynamic on screen in this type of film.
The witch make up was also impressive, as were the sets, as the filmmakers opted for realism, using prosthetics rather than CGI for the witches and filming in real forests in Germany rather than using green screens. When you're making a fairy tale I guess you want to ground it in reality as much as possible and I felt that it worked really well here.
Overall, a lot of gore but also a lot of fun. Which has been sorely absent from our screens in a while. The Oscar season of serious films is over, go let your hair down for a night. 7 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 27th February 2013
UK Release Date - 27th February 2013
Cast Overview:
Jeremy Renner ~ Hansel
Gemma Arterton ~ Gretel
Famke Janssen ~ Muriel
Pihla Viitala ~ Mina
Derek Mears ~ Edward
Thomas Mann ~ Ben
Peter Stormare ~ Sheriff Berringer
Director/Writer ~ Tommy Wirkola
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